TIME FOR ACTION: Lynch Sales’ UK divisional manager, Gareth Price, offers his advice to retailers on how to stay current.

After a prolonged downturn we learn that consumer confidence is returning to the market, wages are increasing, and household bills reducing. Unemployment is down to 5.5%. This is great news, but what if the promised up turn has not yet reached your door? Our response would be don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Sometimes you just have to create your own excitement in your own back yard.

We believe that it is vital that retail businesses evolve their product offer, presentation and services. Failure to stay current in today’s dynamic market can make a business irrelevant to consumers. Failure to communicate a positive agenda to your marketplace is a huge opportunity missed. A Lynch Refurbishment Sale or Re-Merchandising Sale allows a business to reboot its product offer, improve the way they present their merchandise, and tell the buying public that you remain a dynamic, interesting business. Somewhere worth a visit.

You have to know when to ‘Hold’ and when to ‘Fold’.

All enterprises have a start, middle and an end. Sometimes through circumstance, a business is no longer viable in its current form. The decision to change direction, relocate or even fold will inevitably be emotional and economic. For a dispassionate view take this simple test:

1. Are you experiencing six months of downward sales in comparison to the same period over the past three years?

2. Have you laid people off within the past twelve months?

3. Are there other stores closing around you?

4. Has your building been in need of repair for more than three months?

5. Your overdraft amount is always at the limit?

6. Are you more than 60 days behind in accounts payable?

7. Is the morale of your employees deteriorating? Are they making enough money?

8. Are you finding yourself working more hours and enjoying it less?

9. Are there new national chains entering your area with more to spend on advertising and with a better range?

10. Is your business showing a profit, or are you settling for breaking even?

11. Are you selling off shop floor models and not replacing them?

12. Where do you see your retail business in the next five years?

13. Are you committed to turning around this situation, and if so, do you have the resources to complete the task?

Many business owners wait too long before they are forced to change strategy or abandon an out-dated business model. Thus, making a recovery or a controlled exit much harder.

Have the sale while you are in a position of strength!

A Lynch Sale gives you more options to reposition your business, and crucially, more time to implement the changes you need to make.

Over 101 years ago, Joseph P. Lynch had a dream – to become the best merchandising furniture salesmen in the country. Today the third generation, family owned and operated business has made that dream come true. But not just in this country – countless repeat clients and new customers would say the world.

What makes Lynch Sales Company so different from its competitors? Why is this organization considered to be the leader in furniture liquidation and promotional sales? Throughout its history Lynch Sales Company has remained focused on its core values: integrity, respect for its clients and their businesses, and achieving superior results for those clients. Over the years these principles have resulted in hundreds of repeat clients, many of whom are internationally based. As Joseph put it, “Respect your customer,” he said. “Work with your customer and earn your customers the highest possible result”.

The Joseph P. Lynch Sales Company is credited with inventing the furniture sales promotion business as we know it today and the company continues to innovate and develop new material, utilizing the new media to keep their programmes fresh and at the cutting edge of retail promotions. Lynch has developed sales material in English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Russian and Welsh, and have run sales in just about every retail environment you can imagine: high streets, retail parks, shopping malls, in an air craft hanger in a field, on a mountain. So when a client calls us and says, “this is a bit different” we get excited!

We have the distinction of employing the highest calibre Sale Coordinators who are thoroughly trained and know how to merchandise your sales floor, train your sales personnel, work with your warehouse and delivery staff while implementing our 101-year old copyrighted Sale Plans in your store.